


Matutinal

by Eissel



Series: Moms Made Fullmetal Week 2020 [1]
Category: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: Childbirth, F/M, Family, Family Fluff, Gen, Gen Work, Inspired by Poetry, Minor Original Character(s), Moms Made Fullmetal 2020, Prompt Fill, Reminiscing, Van is a nervous wreck
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-24
Updated: 2020-05-24
Packaged: 2021-03-03 01:14:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,645
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24356395
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eissel/pseuds/Eissel
Summary: Trisha remembers the unforgettable day that her first son was brought into the world.
Relationships: Edward Elric & Trisha Elric, Trisha Elric & Pinako Rockbell, Trisha Elric/Van Hohenheim
Series: Moms Made Fullmetal Week 2020 [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1758514
Comments: 3
Kudos: 43
Collections: Moms Made Fullmetal Week 2020





	Matutinal

**Author's Note:**

> Moms Made Fullmetal Day 1: _**Family**_ or _**Love**_ or Baby-talk.  
> Poem 1: _A Pillowed Head_
> 
> So, it looks like I still haven’t broken myself off of my Heaney kick, so I’ve decided to just ride with it and see where it takes me.

Trisha sits out back on the porch, rocking Ed in her arms. The evening wind is warm, but not stifling, and the inky blackness of the sky with its sparsely scattered stars evokes a sense of wonder, not danger this night.

_The night Ed was born, it was a lot like this._ She thinks, humming a few bars under her breath to soothe her cranky child. Looking down, she saw his tiny face smoothen out as he met her eyes. Giggling, she poked him in the belly, something if Van saw, she knew he’d scold her for. 

_“He needs to sleep Trisha!”_ He’d shout with alarm, then he’d flush a dark red and repeat himself, whispering this time. It was honestly really cute. 

But Van wasn’t here right now, so she could do as she liked. Smiling at Ed, she bounced him a little, and he burbled with joy. She continued to bounce him, enjoying the way his high shrieks and laughs tumbled out of his small body.

And he really _was_ small. Those had been the first words she remembered registering after the birth: “ _He’s very small for a Resembool child, only 3.2 kilo._ ” Slowing her movements down so that Ed could settle, Trisha lost herself in the memory of that day.

* * *

She had gone into labor earlier than expected. Not by much, just by a week or so, but it had come as a surprise to both Van and herself, since she had gotten used to the “false labor” contractions that had been occurring up until that day. Normally, she would simply change position, and they’d lighten up, but this time around they only seemed to grow stronger.

Then she had felt a bracing pain that radiated down into her thighs, sending her on her knees. 

“Van!” Luckily her husband had only been in the sitting room, he had rushed over to her side as soon as he heard her hit the floor. 

“Trisha?”

“I think, I think I’m going into labor.” She had whispered, clenching her teeth and nearly tearing skin with how tightly she was holding onto to Van. 

“Okay, okay.” His face was the epitome of panic as he helped her up. “Take a seat on the couch, I’m going to get Pinako!” With that he had rushed out, barely stopping to pull his shoes on. Trisha let herself collapse on the couch, a hand on her stomach as sweat started to bead up on her face. 

It was like someone had set fire to her very bones, like she had been struck in the head with a steel mallet. It hadn’t even truly begun, and she already wanted this to be over, to be able to hold her baby in her hands and show him or her off to the world. 

It seemed like hours had passed when Van had gotten back with Pinako. They were followed by the village midwife and the herbalist. 

“Trisha, look at me.” Pinako’s voice barely filtered through the pain in her mind, and Trisha struggled to turn her head. “We’re going to move you now okay?”

“No… hurts...” She managed to get out, vision blurring a little. 

“Not to the bed, we’re just holding you up a little so Mary can lay down the sheets. You and Van spent a lot of money on that couch of yours.” Trisha wanted to giggle, wanted to say that the couch really wasn’t _that_ expensive, and if it got messy she could always order a new cover herself, but she couldn’t, and she didn’t. Pinako seemed to take her silence as her assent however, and Trisha felt momentarily weightless before the pain kicked in again. 

“Ms. Elric, would you like me to give you some peppermint tea?” The herbalist was talking now, his hand on her wrist. “It will help soothe you some, since we can’t give you any Shepard’s Purse.” She knew he was just talking to fill up the time as Pinako and the midwife prepared the area.

“Don’t you worry about a thing Trisha, you’ll be fine. I’ve helped all the women in this town give birth, and I haven’t had a single one die on me.” The midwife huffed, and she muttered something Trisha couldn’t hear. “Alright men, it’s all ready, set her down.” 

Cool water bathed her skin, and Trisha briefly felt relief, then confusion flooded her body. She couldn’t remember moving outside, and she certainly didn’t remember someone pouring water into a small wooden bath. 

“Sorry for lying Trisha.” Pinako apologized above her. “But we couldn’t take any chances.” Trisha only groaned in response as she felt the contractions grow stronger. The cotton gown Van had made her wear for the last few weeks quickly became waterlogged. She felt someone guide her head down, straightening her body out. 

Van’s face appeared before her, his hair in fly-away clumps, his glasses askew. She reached up to fix them, but someone pushed her hand back down. 

“Pinako says it will hurt a lot when he starts pushing.” 

“Pinako’s usually right.” She replied dimly, feeling far away. 

And then she felt it. It was like being struck with a battering ram, like someone had taken her entire body and tried to twist it into one of those funny bread stick things Van had brought with him from Augero once. She cried out in pain, and she felt Van squeeze. 

Stars burst behind her eyes, and she felt something pushing. She felt body squeezing rhythmically. One-two, squeeze and push, one-two, squeeze and push. It felt like eternity. It felt like it had only taken two seconds. Dimly, she heard shouting, and then she heard crying.

“A set of lungs on this one!” A male voice said something, she wasn’t registering it. All she could focus on was the crying, and the warm wind, and the cool water, and the black black sky. Someone pushed something into her arms. 

“He’s very small for a Resembool child, only 3.2 kilo.” Pinako said.

She looked into Van’s eyes, not behind glasses, set in a chubby face. 

She blinked. 

Then it dawned on her. “My baby.” She whispered, staring at reddened cheeks and chubby fists. Her fingers clutched the babe strongly, but not tightly. “He looks like you Van.” She blurted out. “He has your eyes.” A curtain of blond hair blocked her vision for a second. 

“He does.” He said in awe. His voice sounded faint, Trisha wondered if he _was_ about to faint. Van could be delicate like that sometimes. He withdrew, and Trisha saw her baby in full view again.

“He’s beautiful.” The baby blinked its wide golden eyes, the ceaseless screaming from before having stopped as soon as he was placed in her arms. Bringing him in closer to her, Trisha smiled, boundless, endless love for her child welling up in her. “I love you my baby.”

“What is his name?” The midwife asked. 

“Edward.” Trisha said firmly. “Edward H-” Van placed a hand on her shoulder, and shook his head no. “Van, what’s wrong?” She asked, holding baby Edward to her chest. “Don’t you want him to have your name?”

“I think he will be better off with your name instead.” Trisha opened her mouth to argue, but the look in his eyes made her close it instead. Van rarely ever held an opinion that she couldn’t convince him out of, but when he did, he was like a steel wall; unyielding, even to her touch. 

“Alright. Edward Elric it is.” The midwife nodded, and penned the name down. “I’ll run this down to the Official’s office.” With a briskness to her stride, she hurried out of their home. 

“He’s going to be a handful that one. I can tell.” Pinako said from the side, wiping her hands clean. “Now, I have to get going, Yuriy and Sarah are preparing for the birth of their own, so I have to be ready when the time comes. But you two call me over if you need anything, you hear?”

Van nodded meekly, Trisha flashed her a bright smile. “Well, I guess I can’t ask for anymore than that.” Aiming a stern look at the herbalist, Pinako pointed to something Trisha couldn’t see at this angle. “You, boy. Get those herbs into Trisha, they’ll do her body good.” With that parting line, Pinako departed as well. The herbalist, sensing that he was intruding, left too, but Trisha didn’t hear the tell-tale slam of the front door, so she suspected that he was waiting inside. 

“I love him.” She whispered, letting the wind take her words away.

“I know you do. You’ll make a great mother.”

“And you a great father.” Baby Ed at that moment, chose to make himself known again as he started to squirm in Trisha’s arms. 

“Oh, I’ll go get some towels and blankets, shall I?” Van asked, panic again encroaching in his voice. He ran to the house, and Trisha heard the herbalist squeak in surprise and Van thundered up the stairs.

“A silly man, your father.” Trisha smiled, like she was indulging her baby with a secret only known to them. “But that’s why I love him, and you.” 

* * *

Back in the present, Trisha got up from her spot on the porch. Holding the bundle of baby and blankets to her chest, she walked back inside, making sure to close the screen door silently. 

Setting the golden crowned boy into his crib, Trisha settled down in her favorite chair to rock the boy to sleep. 

“You went out again.” Van said as he walked in. 

“Guilty as charged.” She smiled. “I think he likes it out there. He sleeps easier.” Van raised an eyebrow. So scientific her husband.

“Really? How do you know.” She glanced over at Ed, already yawning and settling down to sleep.

“A mother’s intuition.”


End file.
